please log in to view this image NORTH CAROLINA FC vs SUNDERLAND AFC WAKEMED SOCCER PARK | FRIDAY, JULY 21st | 7:00 P.M. Sunderland will make the 1800 mile trip east from Albuquerque in New Mexico to play North Carolina FC at the WakeMed Soccer Park in Cary, North Carolina. All things considered this should be the easiest game on the american tour as San Antonio FC and New Mexico United are both in the USL Championship, the second tier of American 'soccer' but tonight’s opponents North Carolina FC play in the third tier, USL League One. It will still be up around 32°C at the scheduled kick-off time, a bit cooler but a lot warmer than the Academy of Light. With everyone taking to the pitch on Wednesday completing the full ninety-minutes it has got to be expected that we’ll see a completely different starting XI tonight. Subs from: Young, Anderson, Johnson, Cirkin, Taylor After tonight’s game, we have a 7 day break before facing RCD Mallorca at the Stadium of Light on the 29th July. *************** Disclaimer ***************** The safc website says kick off is at 1am Local KO is 7pm Cary in North Carolina is BST -5 **********************************************
Yes, I totally agree. Any competent 16 year old keeper would've kept out a massive deflection and a penalty ... ... time to move him on imo.
We are still in pre season and its all about fitness and team bonding. But thanks for your valuable contribution.
yep, and our guys are just building up fitness and these american squads are mid season...terrible start really, 4 wins from 4 games.
View from the opposition: https://www.a-love-supreme.com/single-post/opposition-view-north-carolina-fc Can you tell us a bit about North Carolina FC? NCFC started back in 2007 as the Carolina RailHawks, existing in various US Lower Divisions since then before re-branding in 2017 as North Carolina Football Club. During the Covid pandemic we moved down to the third division in US Soccer, US League One and sat at the bottom of the league the previous two seasons, however this year we've bounced between 1st and 3rd most of the season so far. Can you tell us a bit about the Oak City supporters’ group? Sure, this is our ninth season supporting the team. The idea to start OCS really started from our areas rapidly growing population bringing in people from all over the country and world. We would see lots of people packing our pubs at 7am to watch English, German, and Spanish leagues but not supporting their local clubs. So we started this to try and engage those people to support NCFC. How is your season going? So far so good. We're currently sitting in 3rd, just 1 point behind second. This year saw the club really invest in more experienced talent and it's shown on the field. Are you looking forward to playing an English football team? Definitely, before the Covid era we'd previously welcomed West Ham and Swansea for mid seasons friendlies as well as a host of teams from Liga MX in Mexico. These games always bring out the NCFC faithful but also locals who might have never come out or know NCFC exists. Who’s your favourite player? Currently on the NCFC squad it'd be Oalex Anderson. He's having a great season and always a threat on goal. His pace might be the best in the league. Sunderland are quite well-known in England but have you heard of us before this game was announced? Most definitely. Most fans of NCFC also follow the leagues in England and other leagues across Europe. We previously had defender Sam Brotherton on our roster who transferred to us from Sunderland's academy... and of course, Sunderland Til I Die is available on Netflix (not to bring up bad memories)... Newcastle are our main rivals, do North Carolina FC have any rivalries with other teams? Our biggest rival is without a doubt the Charlotte Independence who also play in North Carolina. Who’s most likely to score for North Carolina against Sunderland? I mentioned him earlier but Oalex Anderson would be our best threat. However, last season Garrett McLaughlin was our leading scorer and we're hoping he gets his shooting boots back. What’s your score prediction for the game? We traditionally have done well in the friendlies against English teams. I'd like to see a great back and forth game so my guess would be a 2-2 draw.
Cousins just messaged to say the players are in good spirits over there. Hume said to a fan its quite cold there compared to texas, its 31 degrees at the min
I wouldn't read too much into it - it's preseason and about players getting fit. The results are largely meaningless
Assume an entirely different XI tonight.... Patterson Gooch Batth Johnson Huggins Jobe Matete Roberts Rigg Clarke Jewi A bit early for Cirkin to get 90mins?
